Self-Contained Application Disk for Automatically Launching Application Software or Starting Devices and Peripherals

Abstract

A system and method for automatically executing a participating application upon insertion of a removable media into a computing device. When the computing device detects that the removable media containing has been inserted, a task disk control file is read from the removable media. The task disk control file contains all of the configuration information necessary to run the participating application from the removable media The participating application is then launched for use by a user. After the user is finished using the participating application, the removable disk is automatically ejected. In addition to monitoring for insertion of the removable media, events such as a completion of the self-contained application and a request to eject the media are monitored. When a completion event is encountered, all data files are saved, temporary files deleted and configuration information removed prior to the removable disk ejection. When an ejection event is encountered, the computing device is instructed to wait until the completion events are executed prior to actual ejection of the removable media.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 367,650, filed Feb. 14, 2003, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 360,337 filed Jul. 26, 1999, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,529,992 on Mar. 4, 2003.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to application software contained on removable storage media. In particular, the present invention relates to a system wherein instructions to configure operating system environmental variables and to load predetermined application software are stored on removable media such that the application and its associated data files are automatically launched for use upon insertion of the removable disk into a removable media drive. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] In the beginning of the personal computing era, software applications were simple and small mainly because of limitations in storage and computing power. For example, one of the...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013] The system of the present invention serves to greatly simplify the use and operation of computer application software, devices and peripherals because users are not required to have any knowledge of how to launch the application or start the devices and peripherals they wish to use other than such applications, devices and peripherals will be launched / started automatically upon insertion of the removable media. Other features of the invention are described below.

Problems solved by technology

In the beginning of the personal computing era, software applications were simple and small mainly because of limitations in storage and computing power.

These features have lead to a tremendous increase in the size of software applications.

In addition, this figure fails to account for the shared files that Microsoft® Excel97 requires for proper execution.

Because of the increase in size and complexity of modern software, applications are no longer developed to be executed from a single piece of removable media, and at a minimum, must be partially installed to the computer's hard disk drive for use.

While modern software applications have greater functionality and are easier to use than their early counterparts, they have created usability problems for end users.

A first problem is that managing data files has become increasingly difficult.

Naming, organizing and differentiating between data files is extremely difficult, particularly in view of the common practice of users to name and save files using cryptic or uninformative names (e.g., today.doc, temp.xls, or junk.txt).

Another problem has been created by the shear number of personal computers an peripherals devices.

Inevitably, as users move data from one computer to another, data is lost as newer files are overwritten by older versions.

Peripheral devices and their associated software have become numerous and are in many cases difficult to use.

However, these programs are severely limited because they typically cannot synchronize files between more than two computers.

Thus, if a particular piece of software creates and access multiple data files, the user must manually select all of the data files for synchronization between two computers, otherwise errors may occur.

Often users forget to select a particular data file for synchronization and later find that they are unable to utilize any of the data on another computer.

This problem not only affects synchronization programs, but also occurs when users manually copy data files to removable media, in the scenario noted above.

However, the Autorun feature is limited in that it does not configure a computer to run application software based on instructions contained on the removable media, nor does the Autorun feature have the ability to manage events such as ejection of the removable media, closing of the application running from the removable media, and storage of data files to the removable media.

However even with the above advancements, computers remain difficult for many people to use.

Although this task seems relatively easy, it is not for many users as there is no standardization on where a particular application software is located on the computer.

Clearly, the personal computer has failed to achieve the simplicity of other home appliances, which has prevented large numbers of people from accepting and using computers.

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